The 2025 Inductee of the Bisbee Music Hall of Fame is: Derek Dodd
Derek Dodd began playing guitar at age 12 and was heavily invested in most extracurricular musical groups throughout junior high and high school. As a freshman, he formed The Projects, which included his older brother, Logan, as the front man. The Projects recorded one album. The group disbanded in 2007 when Derek and the majority of the group graduated from high school. Derek then attended Eastern Arizona College where he neglected to do anything that didn’t involve music; spending most of his time in the practice rooms or in performing arts classes, with a focus on the choral and jazz departments.
After returning to Alaska from college, Derek began bartending before forming the group Halluce-a-moose with some high school friends. Halluce-a-moose performed for several years as the Friday night house band at the infamous Pipeline Club in Valdez, AK, eventually recording the album “Valdez” After work required his lead guitarist to move to Homer, the band broke up.
In August of 2012, Derek moved to Bisbee to help his grandmother after she was temporarily hospitalized due to a bad fall. He began playing solo performances, largely at The Bisbee Grand where he was introduced to Steve Drew, almost immediately forming the duo “One Ghost”. Around the same time Derek met Harley Rudell and Tristan Cogswell, and formed the group Big Demons with the intention of performing all original music. Tristan was ultimately replaced by Sam Panther and that group continues to perform. Derek also had a short stint playing with Buzz and the Soul Senders until a family emergency took him back to Alaska, which led to him leaving that group. Eventually Sam Panther and Frank Tornoe joined One Ghost and by 2013 One Ghost was fully formed as it is today. In 2024 One Ghost added Mike DeCosta to form Ween Ghost, a mostly Ween cover group.
Recently Derek joined Steve and Sam once again with the addition of Jess Pruit and Sonia Rita to form the Bisbee Grand House Band for live karaoke.
Congratulations to Derek Dodd for his induction into the Bisbee Music Hall of Fame.
